A 45-YEAR-OLD woman who drove her car on the wrong side of the road while over two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit has been banned from the roads for two years.
Monica Carina Baptista Sousa was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service and must retake her driving test after the ban has elapsed.
St Lawrence Centenier Norman Laverick, prosecuting, told the Magistrate’s Court that police officers saw Sousa driving her grey Citroen along Victoria Avenue on the night of 23 April, before turning off towards St Peter’s Valley travelling on the wrong side of the road.
They stopped her in Rue de Haut and asked her to take a roadside breath test, which she failed.
A subsequent breath test at police headquarters showed 89 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal maximum is 35 micrograms.
Advocate Adam Harrison, defending, said that Sousa has been under a great deal of pressure at work at the time.
Her full-time job in a restaurant had been reduced to a zero-hours contract, Advocate Harrison said, and on the night in question she had been left to clean up on her own when a staff member left early.
Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu said the community service order was equivalent to four months in jail, and warned her: “Should you not complete the order you could be facing such a prison term.”
